Begonia - U497

I just love those dark and mysterious.

All the more when it comes to a small compressed garden space to be content with.
It has a deep red center, a spot with red veins spanning across the leaves.

I just love those dark and mysterious.

All the more when it comes to a small compressed garden space to be content with.

I bought this from Sg. Buloh nursery for a nominal price of RM7 (years back)

Those days, you can bargain something like these for 3 for RM10 

And plants are easily available and no worries to continuously hunt down looking for it as a new stock always happens to come by month after month.

I took a big risk and considering this one a hardy one and walla.. it was!!

On the scale of 1 - 10, this is another #1 but I would give as #2.

It does not do well with goat manure - somehow, the leaf stalk tend to fall out rotten and face fungus attack. I had stopped using goat manure on them.

Other than that, it has a beautiful tiny pink flowers similar to Martin Mystery.

It can grow fairly big in a sizable bush set-up. I realised that they do tend to overgrow somehow in a majestic way.

Another thing about this particular begonia is that they tend to have the shimmering shine only visible in a slight angle - I guess that's why the black is somehow more darker and mysterious.

Somehow, I believe they all share the same generic code of the grand Black Velvet Begonia.

Its a pity they had not yet found the name yet.. Thus U497

This black beauty is so amazing, relentless and still mysterious to me.

They don't like to be disturbed, its more like see no touch plant. Too much handling and you might accidentally snap the tender new shoots or leaf stalk and they do tend to go dormant or dead as they are fussy plants.

Another sad fact is that I had lost my prize possession: The Black Velvet Begonia

and this somehow had become the best replacement minus the sheen and the velvet.

Some of my gardener friends I know nicknamed this one as 'fairy lights' as the sprays of tiny red flower buds just resembles the twinkling of lights in the dark dimmed setting.

Begonia Common Names and Images

Here is the link where I had put together a list of all the begonias that I had come across. A database of all the different types & their characteristics. Please click on the link on the title above for the post.